The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse

Doc Zone has traveled the world - from Wall Street to Dubai to China - to investigate The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse. Meltdown is the story of the bankers who crashed the world, the leaders who struggled to save it and the ordinary families who got crushed.

September 2008 launched an extraordinary chain of events: General Motors, the world’s largest company, went bust. Washington Mutual became the world's largest bank failure. Lehman Brothers became the world’s largest bankruptcy ever - The damage quickly spread around the world, shattering global confidence in the fundamental structures of the international economy.

Meltdown also tells the stories of desperate foreclosed homeowners in California, disillusioned autoworkers at the end of the line in Ontario and furious workers in France who shocked the world by kidnapping their own bosses.

1. The Men Who Crashed the World. Greed and recklessness by the titans of Wall Street triggers the largest financial crash since the Great Depression. It's left to US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, himself a former Wall Street banker, to try and avert further disaster.

2. A Global Tsunami. The meltdown's devastation ripples around the world from California to Iceland and China. Facing economic ruin, desperate world leaders are at each other's throats.

3. Paying the Price. The victims of the meltdown fight back. In Iceland, protesters force a government to fall. In Canada, ripped off autoworkers occupy their plant. And in France, furious union members kidnap their bosses.

4. After the Fall. Investigators begin to sift through the meltdown's rubble. Shaken world leaders question the very foundations of modern capitalism while asking: could it all happen again?

Didn't hear too much about the Rothschild's . . .I mean their deceptively named, privately owned country bank - The Federal Reserve Bank. Sure seems odd that they can print funny money to lend governments bailout monies with interest that is to be paid back by taxes. The hush is so great on this bank it's got to be a global endeavor by all governments to become a one monetary system run by the Rothschild's.

We've still not learned how to share this world. The false belief that we're naturally competitive and self serving is a hindrance to peace on earth. For all those who laugh at religious ideals of a "Heaven on Earth", I've yet to see "man-made" methods achieve any success at global peace, so obviously the use of the word "god" isn't what is making the difference here.

We lack "spirit" today, and a "code of honour". Otherwise if we had these qualities we would have Heaven on Earth. Maybe them "religee's" ain't far off. At least there is belief in the possibilities.

It is Europe that will arise from the ashes of this global financial conflagration to dominate the world. Europe will be the sole remaining financial superpower which enriches the world (Rev. 18) until the prophecy in Daniel 11:40-45 comes to pass. At that time, Europe, the king of the north, will be crushed by the combined military power of Russia, China and other Asian nations, who will then be likewise destroyed by the returning Jesus Christ (Rev. 19:11-21) as the Kingdom of God is set up on this Earth. Until that time, Europe will reign supreme and all the nations of Earth will bow before it!

This is a result of a heinous partnership within entities that are not supposed to mix - Wall St., government, banks, credit rating agencies and the biggest corporations. The seeds of this disaster were sown around 3 decades ago during the Reagan administration with the help of Greenspan who relentlessly pushed for deregulation within the financial sector. Along with the relatively new invention of derivatives, the profit-driven method became much more appealing. Hedge funds followed suit and had a few tricks up their sleeve as well. Policy reforms aimed at the financial sector under later administrations ameliorated the situation for the banking industry, for e.g. the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed which was a cornerstone in the aftermath of the Great Depression.

After '08, the response of the Fed was to lower interest rates to 0% to "help" investment banks that were already collapsing. How does this make sense when low interest rates was the root cause of this bubble in the first place? It's abominable that none of the CEO's have been prosecuted of fraud despite public knowledge of the hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation that they walked away with. Obama has re-elected notable personalities who are friends of Wall St. in his office. Bribery has infiltrated the field of academics as well. Well-known economists are given lucrative sums of money to write journals, op-ed articles and opinion columns legitimizing the role of deregulation in economic growth. These give readers the impression of a much brighter real estate market and possibilities of safe and reliable loans. What they don't mention is the risky, toxic nature of assets held by these banks. People who had a perfect credit history were being given subprime loans - completely unnecessary.

Call it the doings of laissez-faire, (crony) capitalism, market fundamentalism, it is what it is and there's no promise of recovery so far. The solutions to this financial meltdown proposed by politicians thus far are the very same ingredients that cooked up this disaster piece - lower interest rates, increase govt. spending (because running higher debt is clearly the solution), borrow from foreign countries. Increased consumer spending is not even a viable option anymore. And here we are, wondering if going to war with Iran is a smart decision? Unbelievable. Sure, go for it as long as the ex-CEO's of Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Merryl Lynch and Lehman all contribute to its funding.

Dick Fuld, Angelo Mozilo, Jimmy Cayne may have lost whatever little respect or reputation they had earned but at the end of the day they're the ones who go to bed with cash. I'm sick of their apologetic, sympathetic, victimized attitude at Congressional hearings. Don't play the victim card - many of us can't even see you as we don't have tv's in our makeshift tents. Just when you think income cannot be redistributed any further to the 1%. How is cutting welfare even an option in budget cut proposals? It's about time politicians stop running for office based on a social platform, reinforcing social values, traditions and morals. The public needs to educate these nationwide leaders on basic human principles that mom and dad have been teaching you since you were five, that cheating is bad because one day you will get caught.

It an ancient agenda accompanied by a mandate for the detabilisation and obscuring of all moral conduct, because of the Fed and its Zionist faction propagators.Selling capital to governments with an inheritant inflative value before its even in circulation and expecting an honest balance of payments is patently absurd and why anyone has tolerated such travesties demonstrates an exploitable facet of human consciousness.Rather than a myth, the Protocols of the elders of Zion are being implemented to the letter. Google and read The Nameless War by Archibald Maule Ramsay PDF file, an honest English aristocrat man jailed before the second world war for basically telling the absolute truth as caveat for the hidden hand in the global body politic.
Dont blame the banks? well do you blame the legionaire or the lance for the wound in ya guts?

you know i agree with your comment. its a shame that the world at large only look at the trouble from a economical perspective. they blame only greed and poor management. greed is just another tool used by the power brokers to control even what we consider the 1%. people over look the intricate details of this collapse and many other such oppressive actions throughout the world. they fail to research the fact that anyone who is anyone in the american government are duel israeli/usa citizens (viewzone dot com and research who is who) and most are heavy zionist supporters or part of zionist organizations that fund the corrupt ***holes in government. all are top advisors, law makers, high ranking cabnet ministers etc etc.. people have no knowledge of the doctrines that these ***holes follow.. scriptures like the evil telmud or kabala (both of which are not judaism but Babylonism) or what these teachings direct these zionist and hardcore religious freaks to do. whether or not you believe in the teachings of religion, people have to understand that these ***holes do and they will follow what they are taught. just explore the ceremonies and rituals of all the secret societies in the world. the top end of these societies are made up of only the richest and most elitist in the world. look at the genealogy of all the royal families and world leaders. if you look outside the square and research the abstract people may get a clearer picture of what is happening in the world. all of the western royals are related at some stage in their genealogy as with most of the western leaders and most are of the same or related bloodlines. it may serve people well to study what zionism really means and study its teachings to see that to them we are just cattle. you will then realise what the true nature of their actions are and only then will people realise that all the **** happening in the world today is planned and welcomed by the people at the top. its just like a pyramid. look up and as the pyramid narrows the people at these levels get more and more powerful and know more of the plan, oh and there is a plan... an ancient agenda if you will. i wonder who resides at its peak. it would have to be someone/something very very powerful..

Joseph Vignolo
- 03/02/2012 at 05:39

I used to work for a company that made industrial machinery. I few years ago I visited the site of a factory that used to buy machinery from my old company. The factory was closed and the buildings were being converted into condominiums.

I remembered thinking that owning the condos would require mortgages. So where were the new owners going to get the money to pay the mortgages? The factory was now closed and there were no longer any jobs anywhere in the area.

The point is you need real productivity that produces real things as the foundation of a healthy, balanced economy. If you build an economy that is built on debt, finance and paper transactions alone you are building a house of cards that's doomed to fail.

In my point of view we can blame all of us for this Global Financial Crises 2008. The Banks for giving out these loans, the government for allowing them, the investors for buying them and us households for taking them. We are all to a part responsible, some of us more and some less. But also most of us had there benefits out of it, cheap loans for cars, houses, etc.

We need the banks, but banking and investment banking should be again two different things. A bank should store our money and give safe loans to our company/employers, not make risk investments.

And when a investor seeks risk and high returns, he can go to these investment banks, but he need to take the risk, not the average worker and governments.

It takes our governments to make these actions, but also us people to demand them. At the End we can decide where we deposit our money and when we choice ethical responsible banks for our money, these markets will regulate them self's over the time.

Totally agree with your first point. It's far too simple just to blame the banks or governments for all the problems we're facing. society as a whole needs to change and adopt an attitude of earn before you spend and living within our means rather than demanding cheap easy credit. It's like some people think they have a right to just have what they want without having to earn it.

citadel32
- 01/29/2012 at 09:21

Just for the record,

Did anyone else realize the names of the big "investment houses" that were not invited to the first few Paulson emergency meetings?

Anyone see where those banks are today?

Secret deals were made, well BEFORE the collapse of the financial system that nominated who the "survivors" or winners would be, all they had to do too receive their payment, was accept government intervention.

Because unless you have been living under a rock for the last 2 decades, the battle for global supremacy is heating up; and we are only in the bottom of the first.

It is clear that Goldman Sachs and alums pre-planned this entire financial disaster long ago making a new distribution of wealth
& the elimination of competition with WAMU the only bank prosecuted for the required dog and pony show. Fluoridated water, GM foods, chem trails, radiation AND irradiated foods, calcium nitrate in water, deadly pesticides used daily on all living things leaves a very dangerous environment. The Malthusian culling for the NWO has started. Watch the video on SERCO - its all the information you need.

Mike Bell
- 01/26/2012 at 11:41

Typical cops. Fining homeless people. Their already in financial despair so lets really step on their necks. But they're just doing they're jobs right? Funny, that was the defense of most of the Nazi's at the Nuremberg trials. Is there no empathy anywhere ?

USA Recession and coming Depression lost jobs due to outsourcing,
China, India and Brazil experiencing unprecedented economic growth from lost jobs of developed countries from USA, EU in the name hailed by Clinton(numb nut believing in sharing wealth leads to peaceful world and the collapse of communism , ha-ha)
ha-ha

When the world was segregated there are conflicts of trade and ideal which sometimes lead to hostility but in general there are winners and losers, but with Globalization, we all lose!

Terrible grammar by design and effort!(of above)

In conclusion, Globalization don't work! Countries of different ethnic cultures, religions and of size of populations do not share and cannot be govern as compared to each other"s forms of government.

never let haters get you down carry your self with pride and your bullet proof

BlackHercules
- 01/01/2012 at 16:47

Don't feel bad, every investment bank in this country is on welfare too so put on a happy face. ;o)

JediTemple
- 05/13/2012 at 06:11

You know I had a millionaire tell me something one day. He said "the general populous is stupid. We pride ourselves on being educated and intellectual but cannot grasp the basic concept that we own nothing in this world but our own skin. Society would have you believe that home ownership, having money in the bank, owning a nice car etc spells "success" and something has to be "wrong" if you don't possess these things. All it spells is "debt" and you really "own"nothing, the mortgage co and bankers are the TRUE owners of your property, all you are doing is "renting" it from them until it becomes valueless to them." Then he concluded surprisingly with a quote from the Scriptures where it said, "the borrower is slave to the lender". then he said "we are a pitiful bunch of dumb slaves, pretending that we're happy. Pretending that we're alive and just "pretending" period." I thought this was profound and in an odd way encouraging. I shared this to encourage you by saying, don't let anyone look down on you because of being on welfare, please! Because at the end of the day, what do any of us REALLY have that we can call our own, besides pretense, acting phony just to belong, fear, trying to appear bigger and smarter than others, acting fake with this pretended intellect, worrying about appearances in front of others, etc etc. Your honesty in your statement shows more heart and character in you than most people and you will be greatly blessed for it...it is impossible not to be. Keep your head up and chin up!

Pysmythe
- 05/13/2012 at 09:00

This is a great comment all around, Jedi. It always bothers me, too, about human nature...That so many people just almost seem to live for the ways in which they can view someone else as inferior, when the truth is, odds are, they can have no idea what factors may have been involved to lead someone to circumstances like that. I'm as liberal as they come, and even I have been guilty of it.

BeccaLeigh
- 12/07/2011 at 22:36

Capitalism is not to blame because we haven't had a capitalistic society in a long time....more like crony capitalism mixed with socialism. Also, the Community Reinvestment Act is rarely mentioned when discussing the housing market bubble. It began with Carter and was intensified by Clinton. They were forcing the banks to give loans to people that had no business having one because as we've now seen, they couldn't afford the terms of those loans, especially ARMs which were they main type of loans that were defaulted on by the people that obtained them.

Capitalism is private ownership for profit. Socialism is social ownership. Community Reinvestment Act was to stop discriminatory practices which had nothing to do with the housing market bubble. The banks invested in sub-prime loans that was designed for people who could not pay, they did it for profit which is defined by Capitalism and sold the loans to the rest of the world. I don't know what society you live in and who are (they) that forced Wall Street Bankers the US has de-regulated, it is profit by any means necessary.

Steve Jones
- 01/26/2012 at 21:27

No bank was "forced" to make a bad loan to anybody, at any time, for any reason. I fully realize that, that, is the right wing squawk radio line on the matter, but sadly, it's pure fiction.

dkassaca
- 11/30/2011 at 05:42

Capitalism: Need Re-designing

The question is how much is enough? You can't regulate profits so how much is enough for every quarterly report. How far can a company go for the sake of profits?

The value of:

Family
Society

At the end of the spectrums the time will arrive when people will demand thire right to live in peace without woring about profit and say enough is enough?

Exxon made a profit of $107 billion in 2010. That means Exxon had to
Make more for 2011. That means they will go to any lenth to make more
next year.

I could also start blaming people or political systems. But I strongly feel that it is not exactly Joe or Jane that robbed me.They may have stolen money from me at one point in time but they are not the main culprits.

The same goes for the various political -isms. They were conceived some centuries ago and have a certain logical structure, so they tend to work well if their logic is implemented correctly. I could not glorify them, though, if they succeed and I couldn't vilify them if they fail, because their very success or failure depends practically on the correct or flawed following of their principles.

I think that the main problem is money, or rather the way we choose to give to the idea its core meaning. I feel that money should be redefined in its major and minor details. I surely don't have a definite answer to how this should be done but I have some ideas.

If you 're not bored till death from my rumblings, let me elaborate. A certain amount of money usually gives the right to an individual to spend, use or enjoy a certain amount of resources produced in a societal setting(and at this age and era the society is the whole globe). One usually provides a symbolic representation of his or her right in the form of paper, metal, or digital proof, which is not bad because it is practical.

The bad thing is that many people acquire the right to spend resources that do not represent their contribution to the society. I will bring some examples.

Joe sings some songs to a crowd and earns 100 million "trollars" with which he can accomodate his basic needs for 10000 years. Joe has spent physical energy to sing the songs, maybe mental energy also, to conceive the songs and physical and mental energy to be artistically proficient. Joe should be compensated because he spent some 4-5 years of his life in education and 2 hours of singing. Yet contributing so small a resource he receives the right to cannibalize 10000 years of resources which he most probably will never use.

Jang, a chinese farmer works 10 hours a day, a hard work consisting mainly of hard physical labor.During his work in one day contributes the food necessary for 20 people to be fed to death. He makes 5 "trollars" this day which are barely enough to feed himself, let alone his family.He works for some 3000 hours a year and is responsible for the fact that at least 6000 people will have their daily food because of his work. Nevertheless, he never has the right to spend resources more than are appropriate to sustain one person.

Conclusion 1: Attempts should be made, that labor is more realistically linked to money.

Exmple 2: An industry main owner makes billion of "trollars" because he sells about 10 million vehicles a year. His physical and mental labor do not justify his compensation, yet his contribution to society seems that it does. This industrialist employs about 10000 people that work more or less as he(in reality they usually work more than the owner), yet they never make so much money.Should they be paid only 200 million that they earn collectively? Probably not, they should be paid .. about 400million. Should they be paid billions as the billionaire?(since they contribute far more to the company?) Definitely not. Why? Because most of the labor is not provided neither by the billionaire, nor by the employees, but by the machines.

Conclusion 2: It is getting increasingly difficult to link labor with money, the only realistically viable connection that should exist(I do not even want to consider the archaic connections which we still do, with objects, metals, emotions etc.). The automatization of production and of every kind of labor will make us realize that we are not even worthy of the basics we claim for property.Thus, no matter if you work and are productive, or you are idle and a pestilence to society, you can claim little for your contribution and your rights to be rich or poor, even more in the presence of self-evident injustice.This way more of the so called "wages", "salaries","compensations","earnings", "losses","debts" and "surpluses" are not only invalid but meaningless.

If we do not want to feel stupid thinking ourselves in the middle of a crisis
while actually drowning in an ocean of goods or while dying mainly of obesity, I think we should reconsider such stupid and weird ideas as redefining the meaning of money.. or organise our society according to modern needs and not medieval ones.

I was with you until conclusion #2. I don't have a clue of what your are saying. maybe i am not smart enough to understand you. anyhow the example about the singer whose work and compensation are so far apart is an unavoidable. because human beings and not born with the same capabilities that i believe is the main contributor to huge gaps in wages/salaries or compensation. I don't mind this fact the only thing that's perplexing me is how disgustingly huge the gap in wages or compensation is between the poor and rich. lets take the united sates as an example. its considered the wealthiest country in the world and thus you expect it to reflect among the people. and then you turn on the TV one day and you hear that over 90% of the wealth of america is in the 1% of population of america. How in the world can or did the other 99% allow this? why aren't they up in arms or atleast angry about this. Until that day comes nothing will ever change and I truly don't believe it will ever come.

rljp
- 11/05/2011 at 21:01

Money is what people or society make it. It could be rocks or trollars as long as we all believe that it has value.
The singer only makes that much money because the market will pay X dollars for a CD or song on the internet.
The guy that has the factory is sacrificing everything and working a lot harder than you obviously know. If it were so easy then everyone would be doing it but its not. The bankers are out to lunch on 15 million dollar bonuses. they will have their day with what is coming down the pipe the greedy dogs.

Plausible idea. They can actually test for it now using fMRI. We should do that.

StevenLJones
- 10/17/2011 at 07:05

Spread the word, maybe it will catch fire.

Yi Wen Qian
- 10/19/2011 at 14:02

That's not really possible in practice though because if the test is widely known then the answers can be faked. Also there is just a possibility of wrong diagnosis (ADHD in children is a good example), and what are you going to do with these people? Remember it is estimated that 1/100 people fails this test and when you think about there is a lot less criminals than that. To suggest locking all these people up is mildly psychopathic behaviour itself.

The reason psychopath gets to be high up in the ladder is because this current system rewards people that show these behaviours. The idea is to try and find a system where is opposite is true, and it will always be complex and full of trial and error.

Gu'an
- 10/15/2011 at 03:19

Two thoughts:

1) All acts of any corporations (that includes pvt and govt) have effects ranging from short to medium to long term. But the people working in them are mostly rewarded just for short-term and sometimes for medium term only. For eg, the actual people who were responsible for the financial mess (including Alan Greenspan, George Bush, CEOs, traders etc of big banks) had all collected their compansations and were enjoying their retirement when the mess was in full swing.

2) The global economy behaves almost monolitically, whereas the politico-socio-legal situation still consists of different independent units. A small scale version of this is the Euro zone - while germany and greece might use the same currency and hence is cojoined economically, their political-social-legal systems are very different. Same is the case, for eg, between US and China. So, because global economy is connected, money & investment flows from one region to another fluidly, whereas people (like the laidoff workers) cant/dont.

to pin the collapse solely on the fed and wall street is a gross over-simplification... though they represent the most egregious offenders in this financial debacle, a huge portion of the "market demand" for the toxic derivative products lays far offshore, as evidenced by the global scale of the ensuing mayhem.. this demand was NOT driven by individual investors, but by the greed and/or st*pidity of national investment advisors, and the local fund managers and bankers... much blame can also be laid right at the feet of the huge portion of the american public that "worked" the other end of this scam... anybody that actually believed the value of ones property can be viably increased by a continuous process of "flipping" mortgages, and, even more telling, believed this process was sustainable ad infinitum, was a complete id**t waiting to be fleeced, and represents the biggest actual cause of this crisis, as it would have been impossible without the assistance of these property owners.... the realtors, home inspectors, local property assessors, mortgage originators all hand their fingers in the pie as well... the truth is, for the most part practically everybody hurt by this was complicit in it as well, though of course, the big boys turned a healthy profit on it... to use this as an example of "market regulation as bad guy" is absurd... all the regulatory safeguards were dismantled to engineer this crisis, both by removing or gutting existing safeguards, or legislating so a*sinine a concept as "home ownership for everyone"

Many interesting comments regarding this topic. For someone who has actually studied the history of money(myself), it has become very apparent to me that people tend to repeat what they have been told without questioning it's validity, nor researching the facts before giving an opinion. At the risk of bursting everyones bubble, I will instead leave a quote from Albert Einstein, and a few relevant questions.
"Man, like every other animal, seldom questions his own existance unless goaded by circumstance. As a young man, I too went through such a phase, striving to be like one's fellow. Communism, socialism, militarism, nationalism,(etc) while constituting diverse politcal ideologies, all lead to the subjugation and enslavement of the individual, by the state, putting an end to freedom, and personal liberties."
Now if anyone is wondering what this has to do with economics, ask yourself the following.
1) On Sept. 10, 2001(yes, the day before 9 11)Donald Rumsfeld tells the American public that the pentagon has misplaced 2.3 trillion dollars that they can't account for. Why was this not brought up in the last 10 years, especially after the 2008 economic collapse?
2) Why would the American public bail out the very people(banking and corporate elite) that robbed them if they are a capitalist nation?
3) Why is anyone paying interest on anything if money is based upon their labor?(debt based money system since the 1929 economic collapse)
4) Why would the American public pay 1 trillion dollars a year in interest to a privately owned federal reserve that created it out of nothing?
(digital credits)
5) How could Canada convert in one election from a 'peace keeping nation' to dropping bombs in a no fly zone in a civil war in Libya?
6) Why has the American government been unable to audit the Fort Knox since 1958?
7) Why is gold worth 1800 dollars an ounce?
8)Why are people in Greece, Italy, Spain, etc responsible for a debt that was incurred because American banking institutions sold them packaged bundles (derivatives) of sub prime mortagages for short term profits and bonuses for Wall Street?
9) how can the Bechtel corporation of San Fransisco make it illegal for people in Chile to collect rain water because they were forced by the world bank to privatize their water infrastructure?
10) How blind do people have to become before they realize they can't see?

I for one am more concerned that some peace, freedom and equality loving (but establishment, cops and capitalism-hating) bum will one day appear at my doorstep, hit me with a baseball bat on the head and steal my property because some prophet of doom has convinced him that I'm his enemy and he's accidentally run out of booze (that's even though I don't work in the banking sector, mind you). Browsing through the various Internet forums gives a rather scary but accurate impression of the "reasoning" and "philosophy" of these just, angry revolutionaries and armchair economists.

According to the "Are You Good Or Evil?" doc, people who are in big business are four times more likely than average to possess the genetic predisposition for psychopathy. This explains a lot about our current economic situation. I'm sure that applies to government as well.

I think that 's just the materialistic point of view , considering the fact that materialism as an ideology, a view of life , a paradigm ....has been dominating in exact sciences & in human sciences for centuries now .

I wonder whether science can say anything about ethics , the latters that are a matter of moral ethical references than a matter of facts .

Materialism in science & elsewhere just wanna impose its own views on ethics , materialistic ethics that are in fact monistic .

Materialistic monism that can be traced back to Spinoza's ethics or monism in the sense :

there is no good or evil as such , no free will ....even though Spinoza pretended to believe in God, ironically enough .

Spinoza thought that pain is bad & pleasure is good & only in that sense : utilitarianism avant la lettre thus .

So, modern science has been really hijacked by ideological materialism in fact , so .

Many scientists whisleblowers have been condeming the latter fact lately .

Just so long as you're aware that knowledge gleaned from feelings and intuition are not in and of themselves necessarily truthful facts that are supported by real-world evidence and could easily be complete delusions, and that believing in delusions can lead to severe lapses of judgements and off-kilter ethics. And for masses of people to make decisions based off of delusions could easily have disastrous consequences.

John Smith
- 10/08/2011 at 03:51

Lots of interesting characters and drama but the analysis of the causes is nonsense. Typically CBC gives us a left-of-center viewpoint.

In the early part they say that Greenspan was the one person who could have stopped the housing bubble but they never follow that thought anywhere.

Bubbles and their resulting financial crisises are caused by cheap money, excessively low interest rates, and the central banks that engineer those interest rates.

The series here concludes that it was greed, corruption, and lack of regulation that is the cause of the meltdown. Why did greed suddenly raise its ugly head? Did we not have greed earlier? Did the legions of Satan suddenly appear from the Underworld in this last decade?

Ron Paul in his book "End the Fed" says that when the Fed provides free drinks Wall Street gets drunk. And when problems result later they always blame the drunk ... not the bartender. It happened in the 1930's and it's happening now.

According to Austrian economics thinking the current crisis is not a failure of capitalism but rather that we don't have really have free markets but state cronyism where political interests control central banking.

Completely agree. Greenspan + Bernanke are left in peace throughout the whole series. If anything, they portray Bernanke as part of the solution that contained the crisis. How deluded you have to be to miss out that central bankers ARE the KEY CULPRITS in the formation of bubbles ??? I just can't believed they do it out of pure ignorance.

The current ruinous state of economics as a science has much to be blamed for it. It is shocking how the public can not understand the link between the cause ( fractional reserve banking + central banks ) and the effect ( bubbles + financial crisis ). I mean, shocking until you see what kind of paradigm young economists are taught in universities. Then it's all loud and clear.

I am not an american and I live in Europe but now that you mention Ron Paul, I have read that people in USA are starting to be aware of the guy as a serious candidate for president. That is thrilling. The only guys who gets it right and has been consistent for 30 years. Not bad.
The only thing that puts me off about Ron is his fixation on gold as the solution to the monetary problem, because I think there is a lot more to it.

But anyway, Can you or anyone elaborate on the state of affairs regarding how the campaign is going for him ?

I mean, not that I actually think there is ever the possibility that he reaches the white house ( the money lobby will never allow that to happen if they perceived him as a real threat ... using whatever means necessary, of course ) but it is an entertaining thought.

One last thing..... it's not "political interests control the central bank" but exactly the other way round. In my opinion, at least.

Abe Jones
- 10/09/2011 at 03:28

I think we'll have to wait until January when the real Republican voting starts to see if he can win. Myself I think it's quite in the range of possibilities. Stranger things have happened and people are fed up.

It is an appointment by the President and apparently in an election year typically the head of the Fed wants to be reappointed and will "improve the economy" for the sitting President. One could say it works both ways.

mattthespaniard
- 10/07/2011 at 09:44

The documentary is interesting as a historical depiction of the events and key players that took part in the 2008 financial meltdown. Well put together. Thank you for that.

BUT.......... it makes the same mistake that many other documentaries alike, which is to DRAW THE WRONG CONCLUSIONS, or rather... to LEAD THE AUDIENCE DRAW THE WRONG CONCLUSION BY THEMSELVES.

This is what is going to kill us. The vast majority of politicians and the layman conclude that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was a case of a system malfunction due to lack of regulation and that the way to fix it is to grant the politicians more powers to prevent this from ever happening again.... You heard it a thousand times... "free markets suck", "capitalism has failed", "banker's greed is rampant", "we need strong regulatory backgrounds" and so on ad nauseam.

"WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, and a million times WRONG.

The system worked ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. The flaw IS NOT in its functioning but in its DESIGN. And to not understand this fact is to condemn ourselves to never fix it, and to an ever growing amount of goverment intervention in the economy, resulting in TOTALITARISM down the road in the not too distant future. They know it. People will beg for solutions coming from the very guys who caused the problem in the first place. They will handle them readily, and take our freedom in the process.

YOU NEED TO STUDY HISTORY. The history of the money creation system, together with the clever way the banking industry has enforced a system they designed and promoted for their own benefit at everyone else's expense.
The banking syndicate ( I mean criminal ) designed a system that gives them absolute control over how much money there is in the economy and who gets it first. Once they control the money supply, they are masters of everything else.

It is not that markets fail. Markets ( when they work properly ) are the most efficient mechanism for economic progress. What we have now in place IS NOT capitalistic economy and not free markets. We have a shadow of free markets manipulated from every possible angle by goverments, central banks and the financial industry. To conclude that what we need is more intervention/manipulation/meddling with markets is simply IDIOTIC.

I will repeat it again. The system worked perfectly, as it was designed to work. Everything that happened was the natural consequence of a system designed to allow the banks to lever their business in order to squeeze an ever growing amount of interest coming from an ever growing amount of debt in the economy. Everybody behaved just fine, given the incentive structure put in place. Bankers do what they are supposed to do. It is the people's fault that we neither understand the system nor know history and then look for solutions in all the wrong places.

You want to fix the problem at its core ?????? Try this....

1. Stop Fractional Reserve Banking
2. Abolish money supply central manipulating organizations aka CENTRAL BANKS
3. Establish a link between money supply growth and wealth growth. They are different things, in case you didn't know ( don't blame yourselves, keynesians don't and they are heads of many decision making organizations ).
4. Ban the goverment from running primary deficits.
5. Leave markets alone to do what they do best without fiddling with them in the name of "the greater good".
6. Stop bailing out financial institutions who lent/invested recklessly in order to reach for excess profits. When a bank fails in its investment, you need to restructure its balance sheet by letting the stock holders AND the bondholders pay for their mismanagement, NOT the taxpayer. No one is too big to fail. That is a lie, a self serving cry from the banking sector. LET THEM FAIL.

Only then, the incentive structure will be one of wealth creation instead of wealth predation. Problem is whoever really understood the issue and tried to fix it before ended up dead.... such is the power of the money changer's lobby.

Take care. In the meantime prepare for the next one. It's simply not true that no one saw it coming. Many people did and they did not stop warning. The mechanism has been well known for centuries. We have only ourselves to blame.

bravo! many of the points u raised had been in my mind... plz elaborate on establishing a link between money supply and wealth growth

mattthespaniard
- 10/07/2011 at 16:25

That, dear Arsalank is the subject of a very heated debate right now. I wish I had the absolute best answer to that but I must admit I can only entertain the different possibilities in my mind, each of them having some merit. Briefly:

The most talked about, probably the simplest way is to peg fiat money to precious metals, mainly gold. Even get rid of all fiat and leave only the metal, you see. The logic as we all know is that you can't dig out the commodity fast enough to enable money supply swell and thus we would prevent the formation of any bubble. Many
intelligent people suggest this going back to "honest money" as the way forward. I'm not convinced, though. As difficult as it is, commodities can be hoarded or manipulated too. There's also the fact that to have gold as money (only legal tender again) is extremely inconvenient as well as expensive, and is prone to the same manipulation by the ruling elites.

There's also the idea of competing currencies in the market place. Maybe we should let people, through their actions, tell us which currency they want to settle their debts in. Again, compelling idea but not exempt of all sorts of difficulties.

Also, you have those who believe that money supply should be under control of the people through their elected representatives in congress instead of the banking system through their minion, the "central bank". " If the government can issue a bond, they can issue a bill " they say. Thus, every society would just print as much money as needed, put it in circulation through normal expenditures and we wouldn't have to pay interest to greedy corporations ( banks ) who would return to their old business of providing financial services, custody our wealth, and lend only money they do have. As it is readily obvious, this system is only as good as your faith in politicians, which is a stretch to put it mildly. Who can guarantee these crooks will do the right thing, not abuse this inmense power, be held accountable for their decisions, and not destroy the currency through relentless inflation the same central banks have always done ?? Tough one to answer...

If we are to implement a system to link money creation to wealth creation ( production ) it is obvious that we should start by first having a proper measure for money supply, instead of the obscure and misguided Ms. Try google something called "true money supply" or "austrian money supply" to get a glimpse of a measure of money supply that doesn't confuse money and credit ( two different things ).

Besides, we need to properly measure inflation. Hint: inflation is not the ups and downs of a cunningly constructed index, purposely built to deceive people. Inflation is a sudden big expansion of money stock in the economy well over true wealth created. Prices moving are the unintended CONSEQUENCE of the inflation. If only people ( or economists ) could understand this..... I'll keep dreaming.

Only when these measures are well publicised, understandable for all, and their observance abiding by law, can we discuss which organization is going to be entitled with the huge power and immense responsability to provide just the right necessary amount of money for the economy without enriching the banks or distorting prices.

Not easy, I admit it. However, a lot better than the current system: banks loan money they do not have into existence and get paid interest for it. Meanwhile central banks promote such business for their masters ( banks as shareholders... central banks are privately owned corporations in case you didn't notice ) with one hand whilst trying to manage the public's inflation expectations with the other hand using crappy CPI indexes. When they overdo it, another bubble is formed, bursts and a crisis ensues. Tax payers clean up the mess. Banks executives walk away rich. It's a wonderful business !!!!

I hope it has been of help for you. Just keep studying. No one has all the answers.

El Apellido
- 04/21/2013 at 10:06

Mattthespaniard, I know this is 2 years late (and I've not read past your above reply), however if we just stop dealing in 'credit' altogether; wouldn't that alone help us begin a pathway toward fixing the system's 'design' (as you put it)... or is that too simplistic of an ideology?

xiahoudun
- 10/07/2011 at 21:57

heh, andrew mellon did that, which was pratically nothing. Purge the rotteness out of the system he said. just got worsre. While creative destruction is important, so is keyne's work. No serious economists today would disregard keyne's work in the field.

mattthespaniard
- 10/07/2011 at 23:35

whenever I talk to a keinesian economist, I can't help but scratch my head in the face of so much absurdity... "output gap", "aggregated demand", "paradox of thrift".... so much nonsense that denotes so little understanding of the complex dynamic system we call economy.

Why is Keynes still taught at universities ? Not because his theories are right, that's for sure. It must be because his theories are such a bliss for the banking industry, and we all know who controls academia and the media.... don't we ?

Sorry xiahoudun, I will not waste anybody's time discussing Keynes. I just can't bring myself to it. It's too painful. Get somebody else.

Abe Jones
- 10/09/2011 at 03:39

To get some proper perspective on Keynes read:

Where Keynes Went Wrong
And Why World Governments Keep Creating Inflation, Bubbles, and Busts
Lewis, Hunter

Jamie19786
- 10/07/2011 at 05:28

How rich should a person be allowed well others willing to work or disabeled lose their housers and everthing they have.It did not ger into how the government bailed the richest people and banks in the country out.They kept there money well most Americans lost theres.Now one is to big to fail millions of people failed that worked much harder for much less.Realy we need a complete change by someone that cam't be bought by banks or countrys.Ron Paul is that person that just by his recorde and looking at him he will do whats best for America in all ways.If the country has anyone else there just going to get more of the same.The country is bankrupt and needs a face lift Ron Paul will give it.In 2008 thet lauphed at his ideas and now steal them but with no intension of changing the ststus qou.I'm Canadian and not an expert but if I was ever sure of somthing its Ron Paul has to be Americas next prestdent for many reasons.He wii bring all the troops home and close the over 130 bases around the world that America should not have and can't affored.Please America wake up you can only do so much in 8 years but he can show the people what the country could be with full constitutional freedoms.Its up to you hope you smart and don't pass on what may be Americas last chance.

We need a middle class but we do not NEED rich people or class. What happens if there are no rich people? Thomas Paine wanted the constitution to ban the unfettered accumulation of wealth but all the super rich attendees voted it down. No middle class and people like hitler come to power. runaway inflation wiped out german middle class in mid twenties. But rich people are simply not necessary for a healthy society.

there were regulations the glass ssegal act and the bush adintstration throught sentaor ghram removed them, besides the point does anyone feel a moral obligation up there on eall street or are they all freaking corrupt pigs ? we alredy know the answer.

N B
- 10/06/2011 at 07:48

And nothing has been corrected since the crash in 2008. Worse, most governments have responded by burdening their populations with even more debt in an effort to postpone the inevitable collapse. It's like putting a band-aid on a malignant tumor. ... It's to be expected, I suppose. Government has almost always proven incapable of solving problems (although they are great at generating them). Looks like we're in for another "natural" correction. That usually means depression and war.

Believe it or not, the solution for your problem is very simple. Click the red button at the bottom of the player. Hide annotations. (After you click play of course)

Yavanna
- 10/05/2011 at 23:50

Wow I cant believe I`ve been so daft! I didn't think it was an annotation however. I'll watch it tomorrow then. Thanks Mr V.

silkop
- 10/08/2011 at 23:55

You can just click the close icon to make it go away (the advert, not the documentary).

Guest
- 10/05/2011 at 18:44

Are most families of 4 willing to...
not have two cars (or three or four depending on the age of the kids)?
not have 4 TV?
not have 4 computers?
not have 4 credit cards (or many more)?
not have 4 cell phones?
not have 100 pairs of shoes, coats, jeans, ect...?
not have the latest, the fastest, the most of the most?
not go shopping every saturday and sunday?
not buy a loto ticket every week?
Are any family interested in being above having?
Are the rich there because we are willing to put them there?
Are any of us silently dreaming to be rich too?
az

yes it is true humans are incredibly greedy, look at all the gay and lesbian people that choose too adopt, if this was survival of the fittest all of those orphaned children would be dead and none of gay couples would be able to have children anyway!!, so that would save alot of material goods even being created. same as the old and disabled!, what of the people that make inventions knowing that people will need them because we get old and some people are disabled, they cash in and make millions while you rot in your bed, personally i have a laugh when the stock market crumbles, anyone who invests there money into shares is a mug, any one who creates a company with shares is a bigger mug, work the land get your goods and dont ravish anybody like enron or george bush and live life to the fullest, wall street and the stock exchange is the most f--ked up thing to have been created apart from money!!

Yi Wen Qian
- 10/05/2011 at 12:44

You know what strikes me? All you needed to prevent this global crisis was to make a law: you can't lend 100% of the value of a property, 90% is the maximum, because value can go down and no one is protecting anyone. That's yet... simple isn't it? Ok, so it wouldn't completely fix everything, but it would help... a lot.

@To All
For lots of great articles on what's happening in New York and elsewhere with the OWS movement, go to Alternet . org. You'll get a lot of coverage there you won't find in any corporate-owned major media outlets. Those outlets definitely want you to know as little as possible about what may finally be starting to happen.

@knowledge
I really think it's a terrific site. You're also able to leave comments there with disqus, which means the likes and responses to comments you get will all be saved (and count) towards your profile here.

Alert- Umm...you may not look favorably on some of their views on religion, but try to overlook all that in quest of the other stuff.

Susan Kaeser
- 10/05/2011 at 01:24

I liked this presentation and don't have a problem with it's soft touch. Some of us already know the system is broken but others have to take this in small doses. The implications are huge and the fallout from these toxic assets is not over.

If nothing else...inspiration to find out as much as possible about what happened, who was responsible and look at the changes that must be made.

I'd start with campaign finance reform and put a stop to the corporate infiltration of Washington. I'd add a whole lot of lobbyists to the ranks of the unemployed.

Two things stuck me in this doc, 1st that AIG VP Cassano and 2nd Struss-Kahn.
First about Cassano, he said that he didn't want to answer any question, I think the question that should of been asked was. "Do you want a blindfold or not"? Struss-Kahn, one has to wonder if this guy was set up in that NYC hotel room? Somebody very powerful knew he was a very sexual person and figure it was a good way to get rid of him. After watching this I think one has to look to BOHICA bend over here it comes again

That sheriff, to me, full of b.s. Even if I had a family to look after I could not see another family homeless, I would, as they call it in the army refuse to soldier... Thats why I'm no longer in lol... too many morals, if I did do that to just one family I'd be physically sick for the rest of my days. We are all caught up in a system and its easy to forget that we have choices but anyone whinging and whining ''ohh I have to do some horrible things just to earn some cotton with some dead dudes face on'', have in fact made a choice. That c.o.p (corporate office protector) stands with the bankers. I sincerely hope that the family he may be providing for are filled with disgust and enforce ironic justice by leaving him to stand with the bankers and with some added karmic justice, the wife should take the house.

An active citizenry, which will inevitably realize capitalism fails to represent their interests.

Omniman
- 10/05/2011 at 05:27

I totally agree. The problem with an active citizenry is that they need to be properly informed, or they are just dangerous. Capitalism, as it is currently described and implemented, simply does not work. Many people are under the impression that capitalism is not at fault, but greed is. This is untrue. Both greed and capitalism are at fault.

Guest
- 10/05/2011 at 08:07

About 400 million Chinese who no longer live on less than $1 per day would disagree that "capitalism as it is currently described and implemented simply does not work".

I do not deny that there are many systemic problems with what we have today. Namely the intimate connection between big business and big government. But to say that capitalism "simply does not work" is overly simplistic.

KsDevil
- 10/08/2011 at 16:29

Capitalism works best when times are good, but when times are tough, the hidden corruption floats to the top. Human nature will always need to have guidelines and limits if we are going to share this shrinking planet. Self regulation is a fantasy.

Abe Jones
- 10/09/2011 at 03:36

I disagree with your main thought but I think logically also you have it backwards. The corruption floats to the top in good times. These things happened in "good times". I was in the "bad times" that we discovered it. So by this logic capitalism must only work in bad times rather than good times ?

Abe Jones
- 10/09/2011 at 03:48

More to the point though these evils couldn't have happened unless there was a massive bubble of money available to be put into bad investments. The massive bubble was created by the Fed.

Central banking is not really part of capitalism. It is something more favoured by socialists, Keynesians, and marxists than Adam Smith.

Jason
- 11/01/2011 at 08:45

#1 There is no utopian society or perfect system.
#2 Capitalism and the free market offer the greatest freedoms known to mankind
#3 The market by in large does much more regulating than Government could ever dream of (in free market these banks would have failed, many corporations would have bellied up, and the system would have spent a lot of time liquidating/detoxing bad investment) In fact it can even be argued that in a free market system it never would have come to that point.

No way in HELL do these mortgage companies lend money to high risk borrowers. No way in HELL are the investment banks (GS) able to manipulate the system for such a large profit. So on and so forth.

You can make rules, regulations, and taxes but banks, corporations, people will find ways around them until the end of time.

Let the market work it's magic and sit back and enjoy the LESS bumpy ride.

Rocky Racoon
- 10/10/2011 at 07:12

You mean the one's committing suicide due to the abysmal working and living conditons they have to endure making Steve Jobs ipods for 2 dollars a day? Are those the Chinese that you are talking about?

Lucy Saw
- 10/06/2011 at 05:44

I disagree, what you are looking at isn't capitalism but speculation, unregulated gambling. Capitalism deals conservatively with captial=value, they are the ones who cautiously puts their money in productive activity, innovation, factories, business where capital equals production of something of value. What you are looking at is corporatism where people make bets and changes money based on predatory tactics, they don't produce anything for the money they make. Its a mistake for us to pretend that conservative banking that needed proof of ability to repay loans is in any way similar to the sleazy practices that has been taking place in the financial sector.

Matt Kukowski
- 10/04/2011 at 12:19

We have to realize that this is ONLY THE BEGINNING of 'the melt down'. By no means is this over. It is only going to worsen. People will lose it and start fighting... WW 3 is on it's way. This is NO exaggeration. After watching this doc... it just confirmed how angry people can get... when the collapse continues and continues and worsens... WW 3 will happen, because that is the only way human beings know how to 'reset' and start over.

What we do when things collapse UTTERLY and for long periods of time is look for hope in a crazed leader to create order again. They create new hopes by utterly destroying EVERYTHING in order to 'reset' and build it all up again.

Nature itself works in this way. An exploding star triggers dormant gas clouds to swirl and form and light up.

Yes there will be a new financial collapse, even worse then 2008, listen to the people that did warn about the collapse 2008, and they're all saying there will be a new one but at a much larger scale.

Like Peter Schiff, Gerald Celente, Marc Faber, Ron Paul etc..

Regan
- 10/04/2011 at 11:42

One employee of AIG threatens the whole company? WTF?? and Hank Paulson is made out to be nothing more than an incompetent buffoon?? What a sham!! I stopped watching after this, it purports to be a heavy hitting expose but is little more than a dramatisation of cherry picked details sanitized for mainstream. It does absolutley nothing to show how knowingly involved Paulson, Geitner, Greenspan and Co. really where (and still are) in the engineered collapse of our financial system. What a farce! How about launching an investigation into the crimes these self serving criminals have perpetrated on an unsuspecting global community.

I doubt it was engineered. The people you mention have lost money, credibility and some cases may lose their freedom. It is just what happens when the greedy are in control. There is no value in hegemony over poor people. There is only value in hegemony over modestly wealthy people.

Sieben Stern
- 10/04/2011 at 10:18

I think the first mistake was thinking that the 'federal' reserve would control banks - when it is owned by banks in the first place - from making mistakes, and has no incentive to stop banks making money and take into account people and the system over profits.

This really is just the tip of the iceberg.... Unfortunately we have all been sold tickets and must sail on the Titantic. Knowing this our Governments have provided us with inflatable life rafts bought at a discount from the same people who built the unsinkable, sinkable ship!!

Unfortunately, as was pointed out in the doc. by the French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, you can regulate all you want, but the business community will just view those regulations as a new set of challenges to be circumvented. The real problem is the worldwide inter-connectedness of the financial services. Closing all the loopholes in such a tangled web is nigh on impossible.

It's not just about a few greedy CEO's, (they're an obvious consequence of the problem) the real problem is the system itself. It's a breeding ground for abusive practices, and the only way it could ever be significantly cleaned up, would be root and branch reforms.

For example, in the UK, Maggie Thatcher was responsible for deregulating the banking sector. Prior to that, banks and the stock market had little to do with each other. Of course, that mean't that banks were restricted in the sorts of business they could practice, but it also mean't that they couldn't play roulette with people's pension schemes and savings, in the way that they do now.

There's no way that the UK government would ever roll back those changes, unless of course every other country agreed to do the same sort of thing. Suffice to say, that's never gonna happen. The system will eat itself eventually, it's just a case of when.

It's all just a castle in the sand, and they're trying to stop the tide from coming in.

*/me signs off to go and listen to Hendrix*

Guest
- 10/04/2011 at 20:08

I have a feeling that reforms will be implemented, but not before the situation worldwide has gotten much, much worse, since humanity almost always elects to learn things the hard way.

Earthwinger
- 10/04/2011 at 22:14

Yeah, you're probably right. Though I'm not sure there would be *that* much difference between doing nothing, and too little, too late. So for any reforms to stand even the slightest chance of working, they'll need to be pretty darn severe.

I suspect that they'll continue to try and paper over the cracks for as long as they can though.

Aaron Walter
- 10/03/2011 at 22:58

it is extremely scary to see how connected we are, and how much the greed of so few can take such a toll on not just one country but the world. if this is how the monetary system works with bubbles that pop and us to pay for the clean up, then maybe it is time for a new system or a reform of the old one. bone chilling and awakening stuff

Actually it is not the greed of so few, all people wanted houses they couldnt afford. we can just blame bankers.

Sam Adams
- 10/04/2011 at 17:30

Absolute B.S. The banks giving people loans they could not afford was NOT the issue here. The fact that these loans that changed hands many times were rated AAA investments is the first thing that we should look at and start heads rolling. If they were rated where they were supposed to be (cr*p), the banks would not have even given the loans in the first place PERIOD! If they were rated where they should have been they would not have worked their way into every sector of the world economy PERIOD!

The ratings agencies were giving t*rds the same value as gold and the banks did their best to find more t*rds to sell labeled as gold. The people who stamped these bundles AAA should be facing jail time PERIOD!

I'll also bet money that if a genuine investigation was launched, you would find the ratings agencies getting cash under the table for their part in this.

Jamie19786
- 10/07/2011 at 05:40

I already posted but can't belive I forgot to say anyone involved even in government should be jailed many fgor life.

kkommissarr
- 11/03/2011 at 01:02

if the banks had not made these loans, there would not have been any d*rds to rate as gold in the first place.

Guest
- 11/03/2011 at 03:20

I must say here i am puzzled, was is a d*rds? I tried a e i o u y and none seem to fit.
az

kkommissarr
- 11/03/2011 at 04:10

sorry... typo... t*rds

knowledgeizpower
- 10/03/2011 at 19:38

YES....And Now We Have Some of The Real Awakened Standing Up "Peacefully" Right Now .. Occupy Wall Street....For those who want to Take a Stand Against This... check out Occupy Together.Org...There Are some gatherings right in my state here in Tennessee... Peace And Awakenings To All :)

Send them a pizza. Liberatos Occu-pie - $15.00. Sent them a couple yesterday.

PS I was born and raised in Tennessee.

WTC7
- 10/03/2011 at 20:31

Go for it @ knowledgeizpower!!! I'd love to join, but where I live, we can only frown at the consequences of what these guys in the centers of financial power are sowing. But places like my own are also much poorer and the losses we feel are much lesser than people in the rich world feel. Sad but true... Not that we should not protest, but we are not voters that count...

Guest
- 10/03/2011 at 21:52

@WTC7
I live only one hour away from Wall Street and would love to go down there and offer my support, but with the responsibilities I have here with my family (homeschooling, etc.) it's just not feasible. But if I were still a single man, believe me, I'd be there beating my tambourine at least as loud as anyone else, because I hate those capitalist pigs with a passion burning. They have screwed up ours and the global economy worse than anything else, and NONE of them are being held to account for what they've done. And interestingly, from what I see, for some reason, few, if any, (corporate-owned) major news outlets here are giving the protests the coverage it deserves.

WTC7
- 10/03/2011 at 22:10

@ Pysmythe,

Family is the priority in lives of all of us and I believe that's the way it should be. We all contribute in the way we can in the process of disclosing the financial exploitation of us all and getting out in the street to protest in surely not the only way :). I am sure you are doing a great job in raising your boy to become a decent and compassionate human being, actually I am certain that you do!

I must say that I am not surprised that the media are not covering this event appropriately... that's how it works...

Guest
- 10/03/2011 at 22:15

@WTC7Three boys and one spoiled-rotten girl! lol.
(My two oldest boys are out on their own already.)

I would love to see the culprits responsible for these problems go to jail, but it'll never happen in this country.

WTC7
- 10/03/2011 at 22:38

Wow :)! Sorry about that, I remember you saying once how you were entertaining your son and I (obviously wrongly) assumed that it was only him :)!

I also tend to believe that the culprits will never be imprisoned but... one is entitled to hope that the world will eventually wake up and realize that the power lays in us - the common people :).

Guest
- 10/03/2011 at 23:18

@WTC7

(The two oldest are actually my stepsons, but I love them as much as my own. When I married their mother (when they were very young, which made things easier), I married them, too, as the saying goes.)

One of the major points of the protesters is that the top 1% should not be allowed to have so much power over the other 99%, and I don't know who could argue with that...other than the rich, of course. Rich people pay less taxes, corporations get all kinds of tax-breaks, etc., etc., and we've all just rolled over and dropped our pants for them for far too long. I would love to see these protests go just as far as they can, and employ just about whatever tactics may be needed, to wake these greedy bastards up to the reality: They are FAR outnumbered, and ought to be quaking in their Guccis on a daily basis.